I know this is late, and it's completely my fault. I'm really sorry; it's just that I have a lot of other responsibilities and hobbies and I'm starting to lose passion for this story. Anyway, I'm going to do my best to keep this story up. Also, the answer to what Himaru meant at the end of the last chapter: since his father is the Shinigami, I assumed his uncle is probably Kami himself. Most of the people who guessed got it right, although there was one person who just demanded a cookie…Anyway, to all the people who were correct summons a giant basket and an odd looking machine gun Cookie Dispenser no Jutsu!

Naruto growled at the Kumo shinobi. Judging by the vests the enemies were at least chuunin level, not to mention Shino was who-knows-where being ambushed by an enemy of unknown abilities. The odds were definitely not in their favor. Naruto knew he could take at least one, probably two if he went all out, but he wasn't sure about Hinata and Kiba. Both of them seemed awfully scared.

"Killing intent, dammit!" Naruto cursed, having forgotten for a moment that few mortals could affect a hanyou with their blood lust. The three enemies closed in, and Naruto's teammates were still in shock, but at least he had the element of surprise. And the killing intent of a millennia old demon lord at his disposal. A roar exploded from Naruto's throat like a wild animal, and the killing intent hit the Kumo-nin like a tidal wave. Their own blood lust was crushed like an ant under an elephant, and Naruto used his new opening. He lunged forward and nailed the kunoichi in the center with a sold Akaken to the gut. The life went out of her in a gush of blood from her mouth.

"M-monster!" the second two shouted, finally regaining their wits. One of them engaged Naruto in taijutsu, and the blond quickly realized he had a problem. At first the ninja's motions were erratic with fear, but quickly became lethal and precise. Every one of Naruto's attacks was deflected at the wrist or forearm, and he could hear the third ninja chanting a jutsu.

"Gatsuuga!" As if they'd done it a million times before, Naruto perfectly sidestepped one of Kiba's fanged hurricanes, so not one but two ninja were hit dead on.

"Watch it Dog Boy, you nearly got me too!" Naruto shouted, but he was already grinning.

"Shut up you ingrate!" Naruto laughed but turned to Hinata.

"Kiba and I've got things here. You go find Shino, 'kay?"

"O-okay." Hinata's eyes pulsed into the Byakugan and she dove into the woods. 'I'm so useless, I couldn't even help Naruto-kun when those ninja attacked.' The image of the Kumo kunoichi lying dead on the ground flashed in those white eyes. 'He had to kill for us…' A spark of determination blazed into a bonfire. "I won't let my team down again!"

With Kiba and Naruto, the fight had just gotten a little more complicated. Both the enemies had this strange rock clone technique, and now the two genin (and one dog) were surrounded back-to-back. "I blame you." Naruto spared an affronted look at Kiba.

"How is this my fault?" Kiba shrugged.

"Because it is." And then they came. Two dozen bodies of stone descended down upon them like an avalanche.

"Duck! Bakuyaku Tsuba no Jutsu!" Kiba dropped to the ground just in time as a rain of chakra washed overhead like a lawn sprinkler. Only one thing was heard above the storm of explosions.

"Are you fucking insane, Naruto!?"

Shino was faring poorly against his opponent. A lightning and fire specialist was not a good match against a bug user. Every wave of Kikaichu he sent out were burnt to a crisp, add that to the ones that got zapped by electrical jutsu every time Shino had to switch places with a bug clone, and he was starting to run low on bugs.

"Die, Aburame! Raiton: Raidan no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Lightning Blast Technique)!" A single concentrated bolt of energy struck Shino in the chest. He dropped like a sack of bricks and lay motionless. The Kumo shinobi, Giichi, smirked and pulled out a kunai. "And now to make su-gh!" Blood trickled out of the ninja's mouth as he swung around to face his new opponent. "Hyuuga!" he spat, but that one word gave Hinata enough time to deliver two more punishing blows to his torso. The normally shy girl was filled with rage. She's almost let down Kiba and Naruto, and now Shino could be dead because she was too slow.

"Damn you!" she cursed, pushing the attack forward. Blow after blow rained down on the Kumo-nin, until eventually the only thing holding his body up anymore was the continued force of Hinata's strikes. Finally, his body collapsed in on itself from the damage the Jyuuken had done. Still in the rush of adrenaline, Hinata rushed to Shino's side. 'Thank-Kami, he's still breathing.' The rush left her, and Hinata came to a terrible realization. She'd just killed a man.

Naruto poked the Kumo-nin's body with his foot. "Looks like the blast knocked them out."

"We don't have time to goof off, Naruto-baka! We have to go check up on Shino and Hinata!"

"I'm not goofing off!" Naruto retorted, but Kiba had already disappeared into the foliage. "Wait up!" Without a second thought Naruto leapt after him to find their teammates.

Sakura was tired, but proud. She'd passed all of the Godaime's tests, and started her real training. Sakura giggled a little bit as she remembered Tsunade's face. The medical genius hadn't really had a plan for training; she'd expected Sakura to take all day. Tsunade looked like a fish out of water for a good five minutes! Sakura's muscles panged in retort, as if Tsunade could here her. Since the Slug-Sannin hadn't had any more medical training prepared, she'd decided to test Sakura's combat abilities. Well, more like her dodging abilities.

"Now I know how Naruto feels," Sakura mumbled as she made her way to Himaru's house. "Maybe this is Kami's way of telling me to go easier on him? Nah."

"The idiot probably enjoys it." Sakura stopped in mid-step.

"Ino? Oh, uh, how are you? Got back from the mission already?"

"Yeah, shouldn't you be going after Sasuke now?" A frown tugged at Sakura's lips.

"He probably needs to rest Ino. I'm not some obsessive fan-girl." Sparks of lightning raced between them.

"Yeah? Well neither am I!"

"That's not what Sasuke-kun thinks!" Sakura knew it was harsh, but she really wasn't in the mood to play around with Ino right now.

"Sasuke can fornicate with a spork for all I care!" Now that was unexpected.

"I-Ino?" The blonde girl sighed as the anger visibly drained out of her.

"You won him fair and square Sakura. Besides there are other fish in the sea." Ino's previous scowl was replaced with a playful smirk. "After all, Naruto isn't such a shrimp anymore." Sakura couldn't help but giggle.

"No chance, Ino-pig. Naruto's fallen for Hinata, even if he hasn't realized it yet." Ino pouted and stuck her tongue out.

"Fine, Forehead-girl. I'll get someone even better than Sasuke!"

"Like Shikamaru or Chouji?" Ino gagged for a moment, but then both girls burst out laughing. "It's good to have you back, Ino-chan."

"Yeah, Sakura-chan."

"Okay, this house was not here a second ago." Kiba stared at the small hut and the grinning blond boy propped up against it.

"Clones don't have to be people, Dog-Boy." Kiba ignored the comment, instead choosing to try opening the door.

"There's no way in Hell. You'd have to know the construction of a house inside and out."

"What do you mean? A house is just some wood with a hinged opening. Duh." Kiba opened and closed his mouth.

"Never mind. We need to get Shino to bed." Naruto grinned again, mentally proclaiming that he had won the 'argument'.

As Kiba and Naruto gently hoisted Shino onto a clone-bed, Hinata stood just outside the door, staring down at the ground. 'I killed a man.' That same mantra repeated over and over in her head, beating at her conscious like a drum. She knew it was the way of the ninja, but why did it hurt so much? He'd been trying to kill Shino.

"Yoohoo? Earth to Hinata-chan?" Hinata jumped at the hand waving in front of her face.

"O-oh, h-h-hello, N-Naruto-kun."

"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Hinata resumed the inspection of her feet.

"N-no. It's just that I-I-I k-killed someone." She couldn't see it, but Naruto frowned.

"He was an enemy. You had no choice." Hinata didn't move. "I know it's hard, I've had to kill a lot of people lately." Hinata gasped as Naruto adopted a sad, somber tone. She gasped again when his hand grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look him in the eye, sapphire blue to pale lavender.

"Don't let it get to you. It's what we do, and they're the enemy. It's either them or your precious people. Remember that, and it'll all be fine." Naruto patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan. We'll all be your friend not matter what." With that, Naruto poofed three more beds into existence. "Now get some sleep. Kiba and I can take care of Shino."

"No." Shock was visible on Naruto's face as Hinata shook her head from side to side. "I practice medicine. I can help." The shock turned into a foxy grin.

"You're even prettier when you don't stutter."

Team 8 and Naruto finally made it to their destination. After recovering from a surprisingly brief fainting spell, Hinata had applied ample medical salve to Shino's lightning burns and bandaged all his minor injuries as well. Now they were in the town their scroll was meant for.

"I wonder what those Kumo-nin wanted it for? The scroll, I mean?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Since the invasion, word has spread that Konoha is weakened. They were probably just there to make it look like the village couldn't even complete simple tasks," Shino answered.

"Oh. Why would they want to do that?" Anime fall-down.

"You idiot! Its so they could make the village look unreliable in front of potential clients!" Kiba shouted, secretly glad the blond was looking like an idiot again.

"But that's so stupid! I mean, sending chuunin and jounin after genin doesn't prove anything!" Kiba sighed, but this time Shino answered.

"The average civilian clientele doesn't understand our ranking system. A failure is simply a failure." Naruto mumbled about dumb clients all the way to the town's mayor.

"Hey, can we stop for ra-"

"No."

"But Shino, I'm really-"

"We need to deliver the scroll."

"It'll only-"

"No means no, Naruto." Unbeknownst to the others, Shino's eye was starting to twitch. It only got worse when he noticed there was no further complaint. "He just left, didn't he?"

"Looks like it," Kiba answered, totally unaware we was about to witness something incredible, something all but unheard of. Shino exploded.

"SON OF A &#$ MOTHER&$#ING &!&#$!"

"Sh-Shino-kun?" Hinata asked, absolutely petrified. In an instant, the death cloud dissipated and Shino returned to his normal, stoic self.

"We're running late. Leave him." Hinata slowly nodded, and leapt up to the roofs with her teammates. Kiba motioned for Hinata to fall back and leaned toward her.

"Have you EVER seen Shino like that?" he whispered. Hinata shook her head.

"I-I hope he's all right."

"I can hear both of you."

"EEP!" They both squealed and hurriedly broke apart. The rest of the brief trip was quiet. They found the tall mayor's building with ease, and were swiftly escorted into the mayor's office.

"So you're the Konoha shinobi with the scroll?" Shino nodded, acting as group speaker, before wordlessly handing over the scroll.

"Ah, excellent. Now I have a second mission for you-"

"It is against protocol to accept a mission without the Hokage's approval." The mayor's face turned from calm to desperate.

"Please, it's simple! There's a boy in the village. He's possessed by some sort of demon that's causing him to rot away! I want you all to kill him before the demon can spread to another host! I'll pay double the normal mission cost!"

"Very well, we shall observe the host and see what can be done." The mayor bowed low enough to nearly hit his head on his desk.

"Thank-you, thank-you! Here." He handed Shino a piece of paper with an address written on it. "Please, just do it. And…make it quick for the poor boy." Shino grunted, then headed out the door. Team 8 was barely out of the building when Kiba burst with questions.

"What are you doing, Shino!? We can't take a mission to kill someone by ourselves! I mean, rules aside, what if he is a demon?"

"I never said we would kill him. I said we would observe the boy. After that we will return to Konoha and inform Hokage-sama." Kiba seemed satisfied with this answer, but Hinata still looked a little pale.

"H-he said th-that the host w-was rotting a-a-alive…" she mumbled. Kiba involuntarily shivered.

"Poor bastard. Maybe we should…you know…out of mercy?"

"No. It is against protocol. We shall observe him, and that is that. This is reconnaissance."

"What's reconnaissance?" Only Shino didn't jump when Naruto spoke.

"Are you full now, Naruto-san?" Shino inquired, and bloodlust radiated from his voice despite its calm tone.

"Er, yeah, I feel a lot better now," Naruto replied. "So who do we need to observe again?" the blond added, eager to change the subject.

"The mayor believes there is a demon-possessed boy in the village. He says the boy is slowly rotting away and that he wants us to kill him before the demon can spread to another host." Naruto shivered, much like Kiba before him.

'Kyuubi, do you sense a demon in this town?' The great beast was silent for a moment.

'There is something faint, but no demon would literally rot his host away. Too dangerous for the demon. Perhaps…'

'Kyuubi?' Naruto inquired after the giant fox went quiet again.

'I have heard of a minor demon clan that possesses the ability to rot things away with a single touch, even themselves in order to scare humans. It could be possible that one of these demons bred with a human, and over the generations the human blood watered down the ability to nothing but an extremely painful disease. It probably can't even be spread. I'd wager the boy could be no more than an eighth demon for something like this to happen.'

'I think we've found a new villager.'

'Kit, he's rotting away. I can't imagine he'll live any longer than- You're going to try that aren't you?' Naruto mentally shrugged.

'What's he got to lose?'

"Earth to Naruto, you there dumb ass?" Naruto snapped out of his mental conversation and glared daggers at Kiba's grinning face.

"Who are you calling a dumb ass, Dog Breath?"

"I'm not the one staring off into space like an idiot!"

"Doggy!"

"Dipshit!"

"Furry!"

"Idiot!"

"Both of you please shut up." Naruto and Kiba immediately clammed up, lest they enrage Shino further.

"Okay, so where is this guy's house?" The aura of certain death dissipated.

"This way," Shino replied, once again in his typical monotone.

"Alrighty, lead the w-oahh…" Naruto stumbled suddenly as several shadow clones dispelled themselves. A flood of new information entered Naruto's system from the village. Construction projects, the academy, new ninja-all of it.

"Nice work Himaru-sensei," he muttered still in a bit of a daze.

"N-Naruto-kun? A-are y-you alright?" Hinata asked as Naruto tilted back and forth on his feet from data overload.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine Hinata-chan!" Naruto grinned to reassure her. "Now let's go meet this guy!" 'I almost forgot about the shadow cones. How'd they last so long?'

'That would be me, kit. I tampered a little with the jutsu, but even I have my limits from within this seal. Sounds like Karite found a new Jinchuuriki.'

'I know I can't wait to- Hey, how come you didn't tell me you could buff up my jutsu?'

'Kit, my chakra or your hanyou chakra always strengthens your attacks.'

'Yeah, but, you didn't tell me you were going to put your chakra into the jutsu when I did it!'

'…I assumed you could feel the differences between our chakra…'

'Er, yeah, I totally can! I just…wasn't expecting is all!'

'My poor, foolish little host…'

'SHUT-'

"Hey, idiot, quit daydreaming! We're here!" Naruto snapped out of his mental link with Kyuubi. He'd forgotten they'd been running the whole time.

'Gotta watch you for that,' he noted before finally retorting to Kiba's insult. "At least I have enough brainpower TO daydream!"

"What?! That doesn't make any-"

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" It was hard to tell because of the sunglasses, but Naruto was pretty sure Shino's eyes were red with rage.

"S-sure, Shino," Kiba whimpered, Akamaru mimicking him. Shino grunted before once again returning to his usual self.

"Naruto, are you able to recollect the information of dispelled shadow clones?" Naruto nodded slowly, afraid that speaking would set of Shino's new temper.

"Then I would suggest conjuring a clone to enter the house to observe and find the possessed-boy."

"Oh, good idea Shino!" Naruto made the familiar cross-shaped hand seal and a single clone poofed into existence. It's orders already ingrained into its existence, the clone eagerly bounded through the door of the rickety old home.

The inside was just as ordinary and old as the exterior. The only personality the house had was the stench of rotten flesh. "Hello?" the clone shouted, its voice echoing through the house like a canyon. The clone casually waltzed down a hallway. It lacked the Kyuubi's ability to sense such a faint demonic aura, but the smell of rotting flesh was getting stronger. As the clone followed its nose, shelves of books started to appear along the walls.

The closer it got to the source of the smell, the more books there were. It was like a library in here!

"Who's there?" A voice croaked. The clone dashed for the noise, finally reaching a door. It swung the door open and was greeted by a strange sight. Hidden among shelves upon shelves of books, there was a human for draped under a sheet. All the clone could see was half the person's face. He was handsome, so far as the clone could tell. Ruffled brown hair and pale skin. The eyes were what really identified the hiding boy though. They were a deep black, and were haunted with pain.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Well, technically a clone, but anyway-"

"What does a Konoha shinobi want with me? Have the villagers finally decided to end me?" The tone wasn't fearful or even sad, just bored and scratchy from under use.

"Eh, no…well, technically yes but I'm not going to! And how'd you know I was a ninja."

"Hitai-ate. There in all the books on ninja."

"Oh, so you read a lot, huh?" The clone asked, hoping to bring things to a lighter note.

"Nothing else you can do when intense movement racks your body with pain."

'Well that failed,' the clone thought.

"Okay, so where'd you get all these books?" The boy raised his lone eyebrow, his own eye changing from boredom to curiosity.

"An old man who owned a bookstore took care of me when I was little. Left the books to me when he died. Why?"

"Just curious," the clone replied, grinning. "I'm always looking for new friends."

"Hard to be friends with someone whose mere presence will kill you."

'Strike two,' the clone thought. "No it won't. Only reason the real me isn't here is because he doesn't want to let his team know about his little secret yet."

"He's a Jinchuuriki or a hanyou?" The clone face-faulted.

"How did you-"

"I read a ninjutsu scroll on sensing different types of chakra. You felt odd, thought I first thought it was because you were a clone."

"Damn, you do read a lot…wait, how'd you know the difference between demon and human chakra anyway?"

"Villagers occasionally stop by the door or windows to throw books into the house. The old man was respected throughout the community for his wisdom, and for his sake I receive some kindness. I owe him much, even if it was his death that prompted people to believe my disease could be spread."

"Harsh, but you should know, you're not really sick." The clone received a disappointed look from the boy.

"You of all people don't really believe I'm possessed by some kind of demon, do you?" The clone rapidly shook its head.

"No, no, well sort of. See, according to the real me's demon, you're part demon."

"…You're insane, aren't you?"